I 


American  History  from  German 
Archives. 

BY  J.  G.  ROSENGARTEN. 


(Read  before  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
April  16,  1900.) 


American  History  from  German 
Archives. 

BY  J.  G.  ROSENGARTEN. 


(Read  before  the  American  Philosophical  Society,. 
April  16,  1900.) 


While  a body  of  able  historians,  McMaster,  Rhoades,  Fiskr 
Schouler  and  others,  are  enriching  the  world  by  an  admirable  series 
of  works  on  American  history,  there  still  remains  another  field  for 
historical  research  of  interest  and  value.  There  are  in  Germany 
many  papers  dealing  with  the  services  of  the  Germans  who  were 
here  as  soldiers  under  the  British  flag  and  took  an  active  and  im- 
portant part  in  the  War  of  American  Independence.  Bancroft  and 
Lowell,  Kapp  and  Ratterman  have  collected  and  used  such  mate- 
rial as  they  could  gather.  General  Stryker,  in  his  History  of  the 
Battle  of  Trenton , has  added  largely  to  our  stock  of  material  for  a 
better  knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the  German  Archives,  still1 
carefully  preserved  at  Marburg  and  Berlin  ; and  other  collections  of 
German  records.  It  was  through  Kapp’s  labors  that  Bancroft 
added  to  his  own  collections,  now  belonging  to  the  New  York  Pub- 
lic Library,  and  deposited  in  the  Lenox  Library  of  that  city.  These 
include  Steuben’s  letters,  Riedesel’s  papers,  the  Anspach  papers, 
the  Brunswick  papers,  Ewald’s  Feldzug  der  Hessen  nach  A??ierika , 
Geschichte  der  Hessichen  Yager  in  Amerkanischen  Kriege , fourteen 

REPRINTED  FROM  PROC.  AMER.  PHILOS.  SOC.  VOL.  XXXIX.  NO.  162. 


2 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


volumes  of  German  MSS.,  diaries  and  journals  of  Wiederhold, 
Malzburg,  the  Lossberg  Regiment,  von  Malsingen,  Papet,  Wieder- 
hold, the  Third  Waldeck  Regiment,  Lotheisen,  Reuber,  Piel, 
Dohla,  Ruffer,  Dinklage,  the  Hessian  Yager  Regiment  and  many 
volumes  of  reports  on  the  battles  of  Long  Island,  Bennington,  the 
Brandywine,  and  State  papers  relating  to  Prussia  and  America, 
Prussia  and  France,  Prussia  and  Holland,  Prussia  and  England  and 
Washington  and  Frederick  the  Great,  in  all  forty  MS.  volumes 
bearing  on  the  American  Revolution. 

Sparks  in  his  collection,  now  deposited  in  the  Library  of  Harvard 
University,  had  a collection  of  papers  of  Steuben,  the  MS.  of 
DeKalb’s  mission  to  America  in  1768  (since  printed  in  part  in 
French),  and  the  correspondence  of  Frederick  the  Great  with  his 
Ministers  in  London  and  Paris  during  the  American  War  of  Inde- 
pendence, procured  in  Berlin  in  1844  by  Wheaton,  then  American 
Minister  there.  In  the  Magazine  of  American  History  for  1877 
there  is  a translation  by  A.  A.  Bierstadt  of  Bauermeister’s  Narra- 
tive of  the  Capture  of  New  York , addressed  to  Captain  von  Wangen- 
heim.  This  was  part  of  the  Bancroft  collection.  In  the  same 
volume  is  De  Lancey’s  account  of  the  capture  of  Fort  Washington, 
with  a map,  from  the  original  in  Cassel,  obtained  by  Prof.  Joy  for 
Mr.  J.  Carson  Brevoort.  The  New  York  Historical  Society  has 
printed  the  journal  of  Krafft,  a volunteer  and  corporal  in  Donop’s 
regiment  and  a lieutenant  in  that  of  von  Bose,  who  married  in  New 
York,  became  a clerk  in  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington 
and  died  there  in  1804.  That  Society  has  also  printed  the  Journal 
of  General  Rainsford , the  British  commissary  in  charge  of  the 
German  forces  sent  to  this  country  by  Great  Britain.  General 
Stryker  obtained  from  the  Archives  at  Marburg  and  Cassel  many 
important  papers  freely  and  well  used  in  his  capital  history  of  the 
Battle  of  Trenton.  They  include  the  court  of  inquiry  of  the  Loss  - 
berg,  Knyphausen  and  Rail  regiments,  lists  of  their  officers  and 
of  those  of  the  artillery  and  Yagers  ; maps  by  Wiederhold,  Fischer 
and  Piel  ; the  letters  of  Donop  and  Rail,  of  the  Elector  of  Hesse 
to  Knyphausen  ; diaries  of  Piel,  Minnigerode,  Wiederhold  and 
Ewald;  reports  of  Donop’s  spies;  and  altogether  some  twenty 
MSS.,  all  dealing  with  the  battle  of  Trenton. 

Mr.  Charles  Gross  gave,  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post , an  ac- 
count of  his  visit  to  the  Marburg  Archives,  where  he  found  the 
journal  of  the  Hessian  corps  in  America  under  General  v.  Heister; 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


3 


reports  of  Heister  and  of  his  successor  in  command,  v.  Knyphau- 
sen,  and  many  hundreds  of  unbound  papers.  In  the  Kriegs 
Archiv  (the  War  Office)  in  Berlin  there  are  many  official  reports 
and  many  papers  not  arranged  or  catalogued. 

Frederick  Kapp  described  the  Marburg  Archives  as  including 
ten  folio  volumes  of  paper  relating  to  the  part  taken  by  the  Hessian 
corps  in  the  American  Revolution,  the  negotiations  of  the  Land- 
grave and  his  Minister,  v.  Schlieffen,  with  the  English  Government, 
the  correspondence  of  the  commanding  officers,  with  reports  of  opera- 
tions, maps,  sketches,  etc.  There  are  three  volumes  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  court-martial  on  the  battle  of  Trenton,  a number 
of  Hessian  war  records  indexed  by  Colonel  Sturmfeder  and  hun- 
dreds of  letters  written  by  officers  to  their  families,  who  were 
directed  by  the  Landgrave  to  send  them  to  him  for  perusal — invol- 
untary but  very  good  and  complete  witnesses  of  what  they  saw  in 
America.  Mr.  J.  Edward  Lowell,  author  of  that  capital  book, 
The  Hessians  in  the  American  Revolution , in  a paper  printed  in  the 
second  volume,  second  series  of  Massachusetts  Historical  Society* s 
Proceedings , speaks  of  thirty-seven  regimental  journals  and  twelve 
volumes  of  papers  at  Marburg,  and  twenty-five  in  Cassel,  in  addi- 
tion to  a large  collection  in  Berlin,  a fragment  of  a journal  of  the 
Waldeck  regiment  at  Arolsen,  and  that  of  an  officer  of  the  Anspach 
regiment  in  the  Anspach  Library.  In  his  Hessians  in  America , 
Mr.  Lowell  refers  to  a dozen  diaries  and  journals  in  the  collection 
at  Cassel.  A copy  of  one  of  these,  that  of  Wiederhold,  which  I 
own,  covers  the  period  from  October  7,  1776,  to  December  7,  1780, 
with  seventeen  colored  maps,  plans,  etc.  At  the  end  there  is  a note 
that  Wiederhold  died  in  Cassel  in  1805,  when  the  original 
descended  to  his  son,  who  died  at  Marburg  in  1863.  From  him  it 
passed  to  his  son,  who  went  to  America  in  1880,  but  since  then 
has  not  been  heard  from,  so  that  the  orignal  has  been  lost  or  is,  at 
least,  no  longer  accessible.  Bancroft  and  Washington  Irving  used 
copies  (without  the  maps,  etc.)  made  for  them  and  speak  of  it  as 
very  valuable.  Bound  up  with  my  copy  are  extracts  from  letters  of 
Henel  and  Henkelman  and  Ries,  giving  an  account  of  the  capture 
of  Fort  Washington  and  the  order  changing  the  name  to  Fort 
Knyphausen  ; a list  of  the  Hessian  regiments  and  their  comman- 
ders, and  a memorandum  that  each  battalion  was  ordered  to  keep 
an  exact  journal  in  duplicate,  of  which  one  copy  was  to  be  filed  in 
the  State  Archives  ; lists  of  the  troops  sent  to  America  and  their 


4 


ROSEN  GARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


organization  and  general  and  field  officers;  list  of  casualties  at 
the  capture  of  Fort  Washington,  signed  by  Knyphausen  ; a bibli- 
ography of  German  books  on  the  share  of  the  German  troops  in 
the  American  War  of  Independence,  among  them  the  memoirs  of 
Ochs  and  Senden,  who  lived  to  be  general  officers;  various  maga- 
zine articles  on  the  same  subject  ; the  diary  of  a Hessian  officer,  Lt. 
v.  Heister,  in  the  Zeitschrift  fur  Kunst  des  Krieges,  Berlin,  1828  ; a 
fragment  of  an  apparently  original  diary  of  a soldier,  a copy  of 
that  of  Rechnagel  ; extracts  from  the  journal  of  Donop,  and  from 
that  of  the  court  of  inquiry  on  the  battle  of  Trenton  ; with  reports 
of  the  Lossberg,  Knyphausen  and  Rail  regiments  in  that  affair,  and 
of  Schaffer,  Matthaeus,  Baum,  Pauli,  Biel,  Martin,  all  dated  Phila- 
delphia, 1778,  and  the  finding  of  the  court,  dated  April  23,  1782, 
and  a fragment  of  its  report.  The  author  of  this  diary,  Andreas 
Wiederhold,  was  a lieutenant  in  Rail’s  regiment  and  afterwards 
captain  in  the  Knyphausen  regiment.  Lowell,  in  his  capital  book 
on  The  Hessians  in  America , makes  frequent  use  of  this  diary,  and 
in  a note  says  that  Ewald  mentions  Wiederhold  as  distinguished  in 
1762,  so  that  he  could  not  have  been  a very  young  man  when  he 
served  here.  Lowell  used  a copy  in  the  Cassel  Library,  and  notes 
that  “ it  was  made  from  the  original  by  the  husband  of  Wieder- 
hold’s  granddaughter,  and  contains  several  interesting  appendices,” 
so  mine  may  be  a counterpart. 

For  many  years  Germany  showed  a good  deal  of  regret  for  the 
part  played  by  its  soldiers  in  the  English  service  in  our  struggle  for 
independence.  With  her  own  rise  and  growth  in  importance  as  a 
nation,  she  has  begun  to  assert  the  value  of  the  services  of  the  Ger- 
man allies  of  the  British  army.  Eelking  wrote  an  exhaustive  his- 
tory of  their  achievements,  and  Kapp  a valuable  book  on  the  sub- 
ject. Not  long  since  a Hessian,  Treller,  published  quite  a good 
historical  novel,  Forgotten  Heroes , in  which  he  paid  tribute  to  the 
Germans  who  fought  under  the  English  flag  in  America.  Re- 
cently, another  German  author,  Moritz  von  Berg,  printed  a long 
historical  romance  on  the  same  subject,  dedicated  to  the  great- 
grandson  of  General  von  Heister,  the  leader  of  the  Hessian  sol- 
diers in  America.  The  story  is  drawn  largely  from  the  papers  of 
the  times  still  preserved  in  the  public  offices  and  by  private  fami- 
lies in  the  country  which  sent  its  sons  to  fight  here.  The  scenes 
described  contrast  the  home-life  of  the  Hessians  at  the  time  and 
the  new  country  in  which  the  young  soldiers  made  their  campaigns, 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


5 


and  the  historical  portion  deals  with  the  Elector  of  Hesse  and  his 
share  in  supplying  soldiers  to  his  cousin,  the  King  of  England,  to 
help  in  reducing  his  rebellious  subjects  in  America.  The  events  of 
the  American  War  of  Independence  are  followed  very  closely,  and 
in  an  appendix  are  a number  of  hitherto  unprinted  letters  and  some 
documents  drawn  from  the  Archives  at  Marburg  and  from  Eelking 
and  other  historical  sources. 

The  book  has  value  and  interest  as  showing  that  Germany  to-day 
takes  a curious  pride  in  the  share  her  sons  played  in  the  history  of 
the  United  States.  Of  even  greater  interest  is  the  diary  of  a Hes- 
sian officer  at  the  time  of  the  American  War  of  Independence, 
recently  printed  at  Pyritz,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  founding  of 
the  Royal  Bismarck  Gymnasium  of  that  place.  It  is  the  journal  of 
Captain  von  Dôrnberg,  preserved  by  his  family  at  their  home  in 
Hesse.  It  covers  the  period  from  March,  1779,  to  June,  1781,  and 
gives  his  letters  home  from  the  time  he  left  with  his  command  until 
his  return  on  the  staff  of  General  Knyphausen.  There  is  a brief  histor- 
ical sketch  of  the  War  of  American  Independence,  intended  for  the 
use  of  the  boys  of  the  Gymnasium  or  High  School,  and  a short  sketch 
of  the  life  of  the  writer,  who,  after  serving  in  the  war  with  Napo- 
leon and  later  as  Hessian  Minister  in  London,  died  in  Cassel  in 
1819.  His  diary,  journal  and  letters  are  mostly  written  in  French, 
for  that  was  the  court  language  of  the  day,  and  his  clever  pencil 
sketches  served  to  heighten  their  interest  for  the  home  circle,  while 
their  preservation  until  their  recent  publication  shows  that  his 
descendants  are  not  ashamed  of  his  share  of  that  service,  which  at 
least  made  America  better  known  to  the  people  of  Germany,  while 
it  gave  them  lessons  of  value  for  their  own  improvement  in  the  art  of 
war.  Although  the  campaigns  took  him  through  both  North  and 
South,  it  is  characteristic  of  the  German  fidelity  to  duty  that  his  de- 
scriptions are  limited  to  his  own  modest  share  in  the  business  of  sol- 
diering, and  that  he  nowhere  gives  the  slightest  intimation  that  he 
saw  the  future  greatness  of  the  new  republic.  In  this  respect  he  and 
his  countrymen  were  greatly  unlike  the  French,  whose  letters  and 
descriptions  were  full  of  their  anticipations  of  the  country  to  whose 
independence  they  contributed  alike  in  men  and  money.  The  Dôrn- 
berg diary,  however,  has  the  value  of  an  original  and  hitherto  un- 
printed addition  to  the  contemporary  records  of  the  American 
Revolution  by  one  who  did  his  best  to  prevent  its  successful  issue. 

Then  there  are  novels  by  Spielhagen  and  by  Norden,  dealing 


6 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


with  the  adventures  of  the  German  soldiers  serving  in  the  English 
army  in  the  American  Revolution. 

The  editor  of  the  Dôrnberg  diary,  Gotthold  Marseille,  head* 
master  of  the  Gymnasium  at  Pyritz,  speaks  of  a privately  printed 
family  history  of  the  Schlieffens,  belonging  to  the  present  head  of 
the  family  living  in  Pyritz,  with  a full  account  of  the  negotiations 
of  Count  Martin  von  Schlieffen,  as  Minister  of  Landgraf  Freder- 
ick II  of  Hesse  Cassel,  with  Colonel  Faucit  as  the  representative 
of  George  III.  He  also  refers  to  Ewald’s  book  on  Light  Inf  an- 
try , published  in  Cassel  in  1785,  on  his  return  from  America,  where 
he  had  learned  many  useful  lessons,  afterwards  put  in  practice  in 
his  reorganization  of  the  German  troops  for  service  in  the  wars 
with  Napoleon.  The  continuation  of  Dôrnberg’s  diary  will  add 
another  to  the  numerous  list  of  original  papers  by  those  who  ac- 
tually served  here. 

Pausch’s  journal  was  printed  by  Stone  as  No.  14  of  MunselV s 
Historical  Series , Albany,  1887,  and  as  he  was  chief  of  the  Hanau 
artillery  during  Burgoyne’s  campaign  it  has,  of  course,  special  in- 
terest. General  Stryker  got  through  Mr.  Pendleton,  then  Minister 
in  Berlin,  an  order  from  the  younger  Bismarck,  then  an  assistant  to 
his  father,  to  examine  the  records  at  Marburg,  and  through  a Ger- 
man, long  resident  in  Trenton,  he  procured  about  a thousand  pages 
of  MS.,  covering  everything  relating  to  the  Hessians  at  Trenton. 
The  substance  of  this  is  now  published  in  General  Stryker’s  admir- 
able and  exhaustive  History  of  the  Battle  of  Trenton , rich  in  its 
original  material,  reproduced  in  text  and  notes  and  appendices  for 
students  of  history.  Taking  advantage  of  the  fact  that  a nephew 
was  studying  at  Marburg,  I wrote  to  him  that  Lowell  said  a descrip- 
tive catalogue  of  the  Archives  there  relating  to  the  American  War 
of  Independence  could  be  made  for  six  hundred  marks,  and  asked 
him  to  call  on  Dr.  Konnicke,  for  many  years  in  charge.  In  reply 
to  questions  on  the  subject,  he  said  it  would  cost  four  or  five  thou- 
sand marks  and  take  a long  time,  adding  that  Eelking  was  too 
biassed  to  be  trustworthy  and  he  (Konnicke)  had  no  sympathy 
with  Americans.  He,  however,  showed  his  collection  of  Berichte, 
Tagebiicher,  registers,  letters  between  the  Landgraf  and  Knyphau- 
sen.  An  assistant  was  much  more  agreeable  and  ready  to  give  all  the 
help  in  his  power,  and  I still  think  that  such  a catalogue  of  the 
American  records  at  Marburg  would  be  well  worth  getting.  The 
renewed  interest  of  the  Hessians  in  the  part  their  ancestors  took 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


7 


in  the  American  War  of  Independence  is  shown  in  a lecture  on  the 
subject  by  Colonel  v.  Werthern,  of  the  Hussar  Regiment  Hesse 
Homburg,  delivered  by  him  at  the  officers’  Casino  and  printed  at 
Cassel  in  1895.  He  refers  to  Eelking  and  to  von  Pfister’s  unfin- 
ished work  on  the  same  subject,  Cassel,  1864,  and  to  letters 
printed  in  the  Preussische  Militar  Wochenblatt  in  1833,  and  in 
the  second  volume  of  the  Kurkessischen  Zeitschrift.  Colonel  v. 
Werthern  says  his  special  purpose  is  to  enlist  the  interest  of  owners  of 
letters  and  journals  of  those  who  took  part  in  the  war,  some  of  which 
had  been  shown  to  him.  The  publication  of  the  Dôrnberg  diary 
shows  that  good  results  have  followed  his  appeal.  He  estimates 
the  number  who  remained  in  America  as  about  4500,  and  no  doubt 
many  of  them  became  good  Americans.  He  mentions  the  fact  that 
the  young  volunteer,  Ochs,  who  has  left  a capital  book  on  his  expe- 
riences as  a soldier  in  America,  rose  to  be  a general  in  the  Hessian 
army,  and  left  a son  who  served  from  1836  to  1850,  and  finally 
was  in  command  of  the  regiment  which  Colonel  v.  Werthern  was 
addressing  in  1895. 

Not  without  interest  is  Popp’s  diary — he  was  a soldier  in  the 
Bayreuth  Anspach  regiment — who  came  to  this  country  in  his 
twenty-second  year,  an  illiterate  young  fellow.  He  began  his 
diary  on  June  26,  1777,  and  carried  it  on  after  his  return  home* 
adding  some  curious  verses — Das  Lied  von  Ausmarsch,  and  Geden- 
ken  fiber  die  Hergabe  der  beiden  Markgrafthfimer  Bayreuth  u. 
Anspach  in  Franken  an  das  Konigliche  Haus-Preussen — in  which, 
with  great  patience  and  ingenuity,  the  left-hand  column  is  a strong 
thanksgiving,  but  reading  across  the  lines  there  is  a right-hand 
column  in  which  the  Lord’s  Prayer  is  so  divided  as  to  change 
the  sense  into  a bitter  diatribe  for  this  transfer  of  sovereignty. 
The  original  is  preserved  in  the  City  Library  of  Bayreuth.  It 
closes  with  some  notes  as  late  as  1796,  and  has  some  very  good 
maps  of  the  operations  on  the  Hudson,  on  the  Delaware  and 
around  Philadelphia.  The  copy  of  it  which  I own  was  made  for 
me  at  Bayreuth,  but  the  Librarian  there  said  that  he  knew  of  no 
other  material  of  the  kind  preserved  in  either  public  or  private  col- 
lections in  that  quaint  old  town  so  full  of  memories  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  In  a little  book  of  Stories  of  Hessian  War  His- 
tory, by  Freiherr  v.  Ditffirth — the  name  is  of  interest  as  it  was  that 
of  one  of  the  Hessian  regiments  which  served  here — there  is  a state- 
ment that  from  one  Hessian  village  thirty  men  were  sent  with  vari- 


8 


ROSEN  GARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


ous  regiments  to  America,  and  twelve  of  them  were  heads  of  fami- 
lies. Reuber’s  diary  shows  that  of  these  thirty  only  two  died  here 
and  one  remained  in  America.  A large  proportion  of  the  so-called 
Hessians  were  volunteers  from  other  parts  of  Germany,  attracted 
by  the  high  pay  and  the  good  care  given  by  the  British  to  their 
soldiers.  In  those  days  of  distress  and  need,  Germans  were  only 
too  glad  to  escape  compulsory  military  service  in  Prussia  and  other 
German  States  by  volunteering  in  the  regiments  raised  for  the 
American  war  and  its  prospect  of  a new  home. 

Ditfiirth  demonstrates  the  utter  falsity  of  the  pretended  letter  of 
the  Prince  of  Hesse  Cassel,  dated  Rome,  February  8,  1778,  now 
accepted  as  one  of  Franklin’s  characteristic  and  clever  bits  of 
satire  directed  against  Great  Britain  and  its  allies.  It  seems  to  have 
been  revived  in  the  German  press  in  1847  through  an  American 
“ historian,”  Eugene  Regnauld,  of  the  St.  Louis  Reveille , and 
printed  by  Dr.  Franz  Loher,  Professor  and  Member  of  the  Royal 
Bavarian  Academy  of  Sciences,  in  his  History  of  Gentians  in 
America , Leipsic  and  Cincinnati,  1847,  as  an  interesting,  if  doubt- 
ful, contribution  to  the  contemporary  documents  of  the  American 
Revolution.  A careful  answer  was  supplied  in  the  Grenzboten  of 
1858  (No.  29)  by  the  Keeper  of  the  Archives  at  Cassel,  in  copies  or 
extracts  from  the  MS.  correspondence  of  the  Landgraf  Frederick 
II  with  Heister  and  Knyphausen  in  reference  to  the  Hessian  losses 
at  Trenton.  In  fact,  the  regiments  that  suffered  most  there  now 
make  that  battle  part  of  their  record  of  honor.  It  is  one  of  their 
traditions  that  Ewald  first  threw  aside  the  powdered  queues  and 
heavy  boots  of  the  Hessians,  clothing  his  Yager  battalion  in  a fash- 
ion suited  to  American  climate  and  conditions,  and  thus  set  the 
example  followed  with  great  advantage  in  the  Napoleonic  wars. 
Other  Hessian  officers  who  had  served  here,  notably  Miinchhausen, 
Wiederhold,  Ochs,  Emmerich,  Ewald  and  others,  applied  the  les- 
sons they  had  learned  here  and  became  distinguished  among  the 
soldiers  who  showed  great  ability  in  restoring  to  Germany  its  inde- 
pendence of  French  mastery.  The  reputation  brought  home  by 
the  Hessians  who  served  in  America  led  Frederick  the  Great  of 
Prussia  to  try  to  secure  for  his  army  the  services  of  their  officers, 
particularly  of  the  Light  Infantry  and  Yagers.  Many  of  them  won 
distinction  in  the  wars  with  Napoleon  against  the  French  officers 
who  had  also  served  against  them  in  America.  The  army  lists  of 
France,  Germany  and  England  are  full  of  the  names  of  those  who 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


9 


had  learned  useful  lessons  in  the  art  of  war  in  the  American  Revo- 
lution. Even  the  pay,  clothing,  food  and  allowances  of  the  Hes- 
sian soldiers  were  increased  in  order  to  secure  something  like  the 
advantageous  conditions  under  which  officers  and  men  served  under 
the  British  flag  in  America  and  in  the  other  wars  and  expeditions 
that  were  carried  on  largely  by  German  allied  troops. 

Of  the  German  diaries  and  journals  now  accessible  in  print 
there  are  : 

1.  Melsheimer,  printed  in  Montreal  from  a copy  furnished  by 
Stone. 

2.  Papet,  in  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History. 

3.  Dohla,  printed  by  Ratterman  in  Deutsch.  Amerik.  Magazin, 
Vol.  i,  No.  1,  October,  1866. 

4.  Pausch,  printed  by  Stone  in  MunselF s Series. 

5.  Baurmeister,  in  Mag.  of  Amer.  History , 1877,  by  Bierstadt,  of 
the  N.  Y.  Historical  Society. 

6.  Riedesel’s  Letters , in  His  Life  by  Eelking,  reprinted  in  a 
translation  by  Stone. 

7.  Madame  von  RiedesePs  Letters , first  printed  in  Berlin  in 
1801,  and  since  then  in  several  editions  both  in  Germany  and  in 
this  country. 

8.  Schubert  v.  Senden’s  Journal  (an  extract  was  printed  in  1839 
in  Vol.  xlvii  of  the  Journal  for  Art , Science  and  History  of 
War , Berlin,  Mittler). 

Of  others  not  yet  printed  there  are  MSS.: 

1.  Malsburg,  mentioned  by  Eelking  as  in  his  possession  in  Mein- 
ingen  in  1862.  Of  it  Bancroft’s  collection  (now  in  the  Lenox 
Library,  N.  Y.)  has  a copy  in  two  volumes,  made  by  Kapp’s  direc- 
tion,  with  his  note  that  “ Malsburg  was  a superficial  observer  and 
reporter,”  as  well  as  of: — 

2.  Reuter’s,  of  Rail’s  regiment,  1776-83. 

3.  Lotheisen’s  Journal  of  the  Leib  (Body  Guard)  Regiment, 
1776-84,  with  a description  of  Philadelphia  in  1777-7.  Eelking 
notes  that  he  had  compared  the  original  signed  by  Lotheisen,  Mar- 
burg, August  1,  1784,  with  the  copy. 

4.  Piel,  Lossberg  Regiment,  1776-83,  Vol.  i,  includes  Diary  of 
Voyage,  1782,  and  Extracts  from  Trenton  Court  of  Inquiry. 

5.  Steuernagel,  Waldeck  Regiment,  1776-83. 

6.  Wiederhold,  Diary. 

7.  Ewald,  Feldzüg  der  Hessen  in  Atnerika , copied  from  Ephem- 
eriden,  Marburg,  1785. 


10 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


8.  Journal  of  Lowenstein  Regiment. 

9.  That  of  Plattes  Battalion  by  Bauer. 

10.  That  of  Lossberg  Regiment  by  Heusser. 

11.  That  of  Huyn  Regiment  by  Kleinschmidt. 

12.  That  of  the  Feldjager  Corps. 

13.  That  of  the  Trumbach  Regiment. 

14.  That  of  the  Knoblauch  Regiment. 

15.  That  of  the  Mirbach  Regiment. 

16.  Reports  of  Knyphausen  and  Riedesel. 

Of  printed  books  by  Germans  who  served  here,  many  are  note- 
worthy, for  instance,  Friedrich  Adolph  Julius  von  Wangenheim, 
first  lieutenant  and  later  captain  on  the  staff;  came  in  1777  from 
the  ducal  Gotha  service  into  the  Hessian  Yager  Corps,  and 
remained  in  it  after  the  war.  He  published  in  Gottingen  in  1781 
a Description  of  American  Trees , with  reference  to  their  use  in 
German  forests,  and  this  little  volume,  dated  at  Staten  Island,  was, 
after  his  return,  reprinted  in  1787  in  a handsome  illustrated  folio. 
He  afterwards  entered  the  Prussian  forestry  service  and  established 
near  Berlin  a small  collection  of  American  trees,  still  preserved 
with  pride  by  his  successors  in  office  in  charge  of  it  and  named 
“ America.” 

Dr.  Johann  David  Schôpf  was  a military  surgeon  in  the  German 
forces  serving  here  during  the  American  Revolution,  and  he 
printed  in  1781  an  account  of  his  medical  experiences,  which  was 
translated  and  reprinted  in  Boston  in  1875.  He  also  printed  in  1787 
a Materia  Medic  a Americanis  Septentionalis  Potissimum  Regni 
Vegetabilis , in  which  he  used  material  supplied  to  him  by  G.  H.  E. 
Muhlenberg,  of  Lancaster.  Later  he  returned  here  and  his 
Travels , published  in  1788,  are  well  known,  and  he  did  even  greater 
service  by  making  American  botanists  and  men  of  other  scientific 
pursuits  better  known  to  those  of  Germany  by  exchange  of  let- 
ters, etc. 

In  1817  General  Baron  von  Ochs  published  in  Cassel  his  obser- 
vations on  Modern  Art  of  War,  containing  much  of  his  personal 
experiences  during  his  service  in  this  country  as  a subaltern.  His 
Life  has  a very  good  account  of  his  services  in  this  country. 

In  1796  Ewald,  then  a lieutenant-colonel  in  the  Danish  service, 
published  in  Schleswig  his  Service  of  Light  Infantry,  already 
printed  in  Hesse  Cassel  in  1784;  it  is  full  of  references  to  his  per- 
sonal experiences  in  America,  and  it  is  significant  of  the  man 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


11 


that,  after  carrying  off  from  the  Hopkinson  house  at  Bordentown, 
N.  J.,  the  volume  edited  by  Provost  Smith  of  the  College  of  Phila- 
delphia, containing  young  Hopkinson’s  Prize  Essay,  he  returned  it 
with  thanks,  and  the  book  is  still  in  the  possession  of  the  Hopkin- 
son family  as  one  of  their  rare  treasures.  In  his  little  book  he 
reports  what  General  Howe  told  him  of  his  personal  experience 
during  the  old  French  War  in  America,  and  confirms  it  by  his 
success  with  light  troops  in  the  American  War  of  Independ- 
ence. He  gives  a curious  picture  of  Philadelphia  in  1778,  when 
Colonel  von  Wurmb  had  charge  of  the  expeditions  sent  out  to 
bring  in  supplies.  He  divided  his  force  into  three  parties  : one  went 
out  on  the  Lancaster  road,  another  out  the  Marshall  road,  and  the 
third  out  the  Darby  road — these  three  roads  being  parallel  and  only 
a half  hour’s  march  apart — the  woods  that  lined  them  being  thor- 
oughly searched  by  patrols,  so  that  the  enemy,  in  spite  of  Washing- 
ton and  Morgan,  could  never  reach  the  foragers.  He  speaks  of  the 
success  of  the  Americans  in  their  attacks  on  small  and  large  English 
forces  not  properly  protected  by  light  infantry  outposts.  His  own 
■experience  in  the  Seven  Years’  War  in  Europe  was  of  service  to  him 
in  America,  and  that  again  increased  his  efficiency  in  the  war  with 
France  and  Germany.  He  describes  Pulaski’s  failure  at  Egg  Har- 
bor, and  Donop’s  at  Red  Bank,  and  Arnold’s  in  Virginia,  and 
Armand’s  at  Morristown,  and  Tarleton’s  success,  and  his  own,  as 
examples  of  what  light  infantry  can  do  or  fail  in,  just  as  they  are 
well  or  badly  led.  He  criticises  Howe’s  failure  to  follow  up  his 
success  at  Brandywine,  and  calls  it  building  a golden  bridge  for  the 
enemy  thus  to  neglect  to  drive  him  with  fresh  troops  when  he  is  in 
retreat.  In  the  Jerseys,  on  Rhode  Island,  at  Germantown,  in  Vir- 
ginia, he  saw  just  such  examples  of  the  neglect  to  use  light  infantry 
to  advantage,  and  he  points  out  many  instances  in  which  their  value 
was  shown  on  both  sides.  Ewald  also  printed  at  Schleswig,  in 
1798,  1800  and  1803,  three  small  volumes,  Belehrungen  über  den 
Krieg,  with  anecdotes  of  soldiers  from  Alexander  and  Pompey  to 
Frederick  the  Great  and  Napoleon,  and  some  of  his  own  personal 
experience  in  America. 

Seume,  a well-known  German  writer,  wrote  at  Halifax  in  1782 
his  account  of  his  experience  in  the  Hessian  service  ; it  was  first 
printed  in  Archenholz’  Journal  in  1789,  and  a translation  is  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  for  November, 
1887;  it  is  also  found  in  his  Autobiography,  published  in  his  col- 


12 


ROSEN  GARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


lected  works,  and  the  changes  between  this  and  the  earlier  version 
have  been  unfavorably  commented  on. 

Schlôzer’s  Briefwechsel , ten  volumes,  1776-1782,  and  his  Staats 
Anzeigen , a continuation,  in  eighteen  volumes,  contain  many  papers 
of  interest  relating  to  the  American  War  of  Independence,  notably 
a series  of  letters  from  an  officer  who  served  under  Burgoyne,  and 
dragged  out  weary  months  as  a prisoner  of  war  in  Cambridge  and 
later  in  Virginia.  The  Frankfort  Neuesten  Staatsbegebenheiten 
published  letters  by  German  officers  describing  the  battle  of  Long 
Island. 

v.  Senden,  Tagebuch,  in  Zeitschrift  für  Geschichte  des  Krieges , 
Berlin,  Mittler,  8th  and  9th  parts,  1839.  He  too  was  a general 
officer  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

v.  Heister,  Diary,  in  Zeitschrift  für  Kunst  des  Krieges , Berlin, 
Mittler,  Vol.  xii,  No.  3,  1828. 

Reimer,  Amerikanisches  Archiv.,  3 vols.,  Brunswick,  1777-8. 

Melsheimer,  Tagebuch , Minden,  1776. 

Riedesel,  Mme.,  Die  Berufsreise  nach  Amerika , Berlin,  1801 
(and  frequently  reprinted).  One  of  the  most  charming  books  that 
can  be  found — full  of  womanly  heroism. 

Leiste,  Beschreibung  des  Brittischen  Amerika , Wolfenbiittel, 
1778. 

Schlieffen,  Von  den  Hessen  in  Amerika , 1782. 

Brunswick  Magazine , a Hessian  journal  reprinted  in  translation 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine , and  a letter  from  the  Duke  to  Rie- 
desel advising  all  supernumerary  officers  and  sick  and  wounded  and 
men  under  punishment  to  remain  in  America. 

Der  Hessische  Officier  in  Amerika , a comedy,  Gottingen,  1783, 
has  no  great  literary  value  or  importance,  but  some  local  interest, 
as  the  scene  is  laid  in  Philadelphia  during  its  occupancy  by  the 
British,  and  Indians,  Quakers,  British  and  German  soldiers  and 
native  citizens  are  among  the  dramatis  personal.  If  it  was  not 
written  by  some  one  who  had  been  here,  it  shows  at  least  consider- 
able familiarity  with  the  conflicting  parties  during  the  Revolution. 

Of  recent  works  dealing  with  the  German  soldiers  in  the  British 
army  during  the  American  War  of  Independence,  the  most  notable 
are  : 

Max  von  Eelking,  Die  Deutschen  Hülfstruppen  im  Nordameri- 
kanüchen  Befreiungskriege,  1776  bis  1783.  Hanover,  1863,  2 vols. 
(An  abridged  translation  was  printed  by  Munsell  in  Albany  in  1893.} 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


13 


Eelking,  Leben  und  Wirken  des  Herzoglich  Braunschweigschen 
General  Lieutenants  Friedrich  Adolph  von  Riedesel,  Leipzig,  1856, 
3 vols.  (Stone's  translation  was  printed  by  Munsell  in  Albany.) 
Esbeck,  Zweibrücken , 1793. 

Friedrich  Kapp,  Der  Soldatenhandel  Deutschen  Fürsten  nach 
Amerika,  Berlin,  1864,  and  a second  edition,  1874.  His  Life  of 
Steuben  and  that  of  De  Kalb  were  printed,  the  former  in  Berlin, 
1858,  and  the  latter  in  Stuttgart  in  1862,  and  both  in  English 
in  New  York  subsequently.  His  Geschichte  der  Deutschen  in  Staate 
New  York , N.  Y.,  1869.  His  Friedrich  der  Grosse  und  die  Ver- 
einigten  Staaten  von  Amerika,  Leipzig,  1871. 

Ferdinand  Pfister,  Der  Nordamerikamsche  Unabhàngigkeits 
Krieg , Kassel,  1864. 

An  anonymous  pamphlet,  Friedrich  LI  und  die  neuere  Geschichte 
Schreiben,  etc.,  Melsungen  und  Kassel,  1879,  was  translated  (in 
an  abridged  form)  and  printed,  with  portraits  of  the  two  Electors 
of  Hesse  Cassel,  father  and  son,  who  sent  their  soldiers  to  America 
under  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  in  The  Pennsylvania  Magazine 
of  History  and  Biography  in  July,  1899.  Besides  its  defense  of  the 
Hessian  princes  on  the  ground  that  their  alliance  was  in  con- 
formity with  their  traditional  and  historical  cooperation  with  Great 
Britain,  and  a desperate  and  successful  war  in  behalf  of  Protestant 
liberty  against  French  tyranny  and  Romanism  and  the  free-thinking 
Voltairianism  of  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia,  it  is  of  interest 
from  its  demonstration  of  the  falsity  of  Seume’s  Autobiography,  and 
from  its  denial  of  the  authenticity  of  the  pretended  letter  of  the 
Elector  of  Cassel,  urging  his  general  not  to  cure  sick  and  wounded 
Hessian  soldiers,  as  the  dead  ones  returned  more  profit  to  their 
Landesvater  ! It  is  somewhat  odd  that  this  very  letter  should  be 
claimed  for  Franklin  as  one  of  his  literary  burlesques  by  Tyler  in 
his  Literary  History  of  the  American  Revolution  (see  Vol.  ii,  pp. 
377,  8-80),  while  Bigelow  in  his  Life  of  Franklin  (Vol.  ii,  p.  393) 
and  in  his  Works  of  Franklin  (Vol.  v,  pp.  224  and  243,  and  Vol. 
vi,  pp.  4-8),  says  it  was  written  by  Franklin  not  long  after  his 
arrival  in  France,  in  the  latter  part  of  1776,  and  “is  in  some 
respects  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  satirical  writings  of  Franklin, 
equaled  only  by  Swift  in  evolving  both  the  horror  and  the  derision 
of  mankind.”  Franklin,  in  a letter  to  John  Winthrop,  sends  from 
Paris  on  May  1,  1777,  “ one  of  the  many  satires  that  have  appeared 
on  this  occasion” — i.  e.,  the  sale  of  soldiers  by  German  princes. 


14 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


This  pretended  letter  of  Count  de  Schaumburg  is  dated  Rome, 
February  18,  1777,  but  is  not  printed  in  Sparks,  or  any  of  the 
authorized  editions  of  Franklin’s  works.  It  still  remains  a question 
of  when  and  where  and  how  it  was  first  printed  and  published, — 
it  does  not  appear  in  Ford’s  Franklin  Bibliography , which  prints 
most  of  Franklin’s  clever  jeux  d'  esprit  that  were  printed  on  his 
press  at  Passy  and  soon  found  their  way  into  print  in  Europe  and 
America,  but  Ford  printed  it  in  his  Many-Sided  Franklin , p.  244; 
Bigelow  says  it  appears  in  a French  version  in  Lescure  Correspond- 
ence inédite  secrète  sur  Louis  XVI  (Vol.  i,  p.  31),  Paris,  but 
with  no  allusion  to  Franklin.  No  copy  of  it  is  found  in  the  Amer- 
ican Philosophical  Society’s  collection  of  the  imprints  of  the  Passy 
Press,  although  Ford  accepts  Sparks’  and  Bigelow’s  attribution  of 
the  authorship  to  Franklin,  and  the  internal  evidence  fully  confirms 
the  statement  ; it  would  be  of  interest  to  fix  the  time  and  place  of 
its  first  publication,  its  fortune  in  being  virulently  attacked,  and  its 
use  in  exciting  justifiable  indignation  against  the  Hessian  princes 
who  shared,  with  other  German  petty  sovereigns,  in  the  sale  of  sub- 
jects to  fight  under  a foreign  flag  in  a war  which,  as  Frederick  the 
Great  said,  was  none  of  their  business, — for  these  things  have  given 
it  a value  and  importance  far  beyond  the  other  satirical  letters 
produced  by  Franklin  at  his  busy  Passy  Press. 

Bancroft  tells  us  that  Frederick  the  Great  encouraged  France  to 
enter  into  the  alliance  with  America — a counter  stroke  of  vast  im- 
portance, far  outweighing  in  its  advantages  for  the  struggling  young 
republic  any  benefit  gained  for  Great  Britain  by  its  costly  pur- 
chase of  German  soldiers.  His  hostility  to  England,  however,  did 
not  lead  him  to  fulfill  his  implied  promise  to  join  France  in  its 
active  and  substantial  support  of  the  Americans — no  doubt  rebellion 
and  independence  were  more  than  he  could  encourage,  little  as  he 
liked  the  British  effort  to  crush  them.  It  is  curious  that  Lowell 
should  speak  of  Franklin’s  smart  satire  as  a clumsy  forgery.  Kapp, 
in  his  Soldatenhandel  (Berlin,  1864),  prints  the  letter  in  the  Appen- 
dix 29,  on  p.  267,  from  Vol.  No.  600  of  the  pamphlets  in  the 
Library  of  the  Historical  Society  of  New  York,  and  described  as 
printed  on  six  octavo  pages,  without  place  of  publication,  but  in 
very  large  type.  He  reproduces  the  original  French  with  all  its 
typographical  mistakes  ; he  prints  on  pp.  196-7  of  his  book  a Ger- 
man version  of  the  letter,  and  speaks  of  it  as  one  of  a flood  of 
pamphlets,  of  which  a very  characteristic  example  was  Mirabeau’s 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


15 


Avis  aux  Hessois  et  autres  Peuples  de  V Allemagne,  Vendus  par  leurs 
Princes  à V Angleterre,  à Cleves  chez  Bertol,  1777,  which  is  now 
very  rare,  Kapp  says,  because  the  Elector  of  Cassel  bought  up  all 
the  copies  he.  could  find.  It  is  very  characteristic  of  the  two,  Mira- 
beau and  Franklin,  that  the  latter  refers  to  his  now  famous  letter 
only  once,  and  that  in  sending  it  to  his  friend  Winthrop,  as  one  of 
the  issues  of  the  press  then  current,  it  nowhere  appears  in  his 
printed  works  or  correspondence,  but  in  the  Life  of  Mirabeau,  by 
his  son,  it  is  said  that  the  first  work  written  by  Mirabeau  in  Am- 
sterdam was  the  pamphlet  Avis  aux  Hessois,  pp.  12,  1775,  that  it 
was  translated  into  five  languages,  and  reprinted  twice  by  Mirabeau, 
in  N Espion  dévalisé , chap.  16,  pp.  195-209,  and  in  V Essai  sur  le 
despotisme , pp.  509-18,  Paris,  Le  Gay,  1792,  and  Mirabeau  him- 
self speaks  of  it  in  his  Lettres  de  Vincennes  on  March  14,  1784,  and 
March  24,  1786.  A reply  to  it,  Conseils  de  la  raison,  was  published 
in  Amsterdam  in  1777,  by  Smidorf,  supposed  to  be  inspired  by  the 
Minister  of  the  Elector  of  Hesse  Cassel,  Schlieffen  ; to  it  Mirabeau 
replied  in  return  in  his  Réponse  aux  Conseils  de  la  Raison.  All  of 
these  and  other  pamphlets,  such  as  Raynal’s  on  the  side  of  the 
Americans,  are  now  forgotten,  but  Franklin’s  clever  skit  continues 
to  be  reprinted  and  read,  and  to  keep  alive  the  feeling  against  the 
German  princes  who  sent  their  soldiers  to  fight  in  a war  which,  as 
Frederick  the  Great  said,  was  none  of  their  business.  However, 
the  fact  remains  that  it  was  through  these  Germans  that  America 
got  many  good  citizens  from  their  ranks,  and  better  still,  many  of 
those  who  went  home  wrote  of  this  country  in  a way  that  quick- 
ened emigration,  in  which,  indeed,  some  of  them  took  their  part 
later  on. 

To  this  and  similar  attacks  the  Elector,  through  his  Minister, 
Schlieffen,  made  answers  in  the  Dutch  newspapers,  then  the  most 
largely  sold,  because  they  were  free  from  censorship.  Abbé  Ray- 
nal,  then  an  accepted  historical  authority,  supported  Mirabeau’s 
attack  by  one  that  was  met  by  Schlieffen  in  1782.  Kapp  says 
Franklin  himself  both  inspired  and  drew  from  this  flood  of  French 
pamphlets  against  Great  Britain  and  its  German  allies  ; but  Kapp 
attributes  this  Hohendorff  letter  not  to  Franklin  but  to  some  French 
pamphleteer  of  Mirabeau’s  circle,  and  says  it  was  revived  by  Lôher 
at  the  time  of  the  Know-Nothing  agitation,  and  attributed  to  a St. 
Louis  paper,  although  its  falsity  was  shown  in  an  article  printed  in 
the  New  Military  Journal,  Darmstadt,  1858,  No.  14. 


16 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


It  was,  as  Bancroft  tells  us,  a Count  Schaumburg  who  acted  as 
the  go-between  of  the  British  Ministry,  who  made  unsuccessful 
offers  of  pay  for  troops  to  the  Duke  of  Saxe  Weimar,  dated  Nov. 
2 6,  1777  : was  that  known  to  Franklin  when  he  wrote  his  letter  in 
the  name  of  Count  Schaumburg  ? No  doubt  he  chose  it  in  full 
consciousness  that  it  would  be  familiar  to  his  European  readers,  who 
would  thoroughly  enjoy  seeing  the  English  agent  thus  serving  as  a 
thin  disguise  for  the  Hessian  prince,  and  the  indignation  excited 
by  this  clever  and  effective  bit  of  satire  would  be  directed  alike 
against  master  and  man,  against  prince  and  agent,  together  trading 
for  soldiers. 

In  the  French  service  under  Rochambeau  there  were  many  Ger- 
man soldiers,  and  Ratterman  in  Der  Deutsche  Pionier , Vol.  xiii, 
1881,  gives  an  account  of  them,  notably  the  Zweibrücken  regi- 
ment, of  which  two  princes  or  counts  of  that  name  were  respect- 
ively colonel  and  lieutenant-colonel.  It  is  worth  noting  that 
Lafayette  wrote  to  Washington  of  a visit  to  them  in  Zweibrücken 
long  after  the  American  war,  when  he  met  “ Old  Knyp  ” and  offi- 
cers who  had  served  both  with  and  against  him  there.  There 
was  a battalion  from  Trier  in  the  Saintonge  regimeat  under  Cus- 
tine,  himself  from  Lothringen.  There  were  Alsatians  and  Loth- 
ringers  in  light  companies  attached  to  the  Bourbonnais  and  Sois- 
sonnais  regiments.  There  were  many  Germans  in  the  Duke  de 
Lauzun’s  cavalry  legion,  whose  names  are  printed  from  the  records 
preserved  in  Harrisburg.  In  the  army  that  made  part  of  d’Es- 
taing’s  expedition  against  Savannah,  in  the  autumn  of  1779,  there 
was  an  “Anhalt”  regiment,  600  strong;  of  individual  German 
officers  with  Rochambeau  there  were  Count  Fersen,  his  chief  of 
staff,  Freiherr  Ludwig  von  Closen  Haydenburg,  his  adjutant,  Capt. 
Gau,  his  chief  of  artillery,  and  a Strasburg  Professor  Lutz,  his 
interpreter.  The  Count  of  Zwei-Brücken  (Deux-Ponts)  published 
his  American  Campaigns  in  Paris  in  1786,  and  his  pamphlet  was 
translated  and  reprinted  by  Dr.  Green,  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society.  Count  Stedingk  and  Count  Fersen  both  took  ser- 
vice with  Sweden,  the  latter  to  fall  a victim  to  a popular  outbreak, 
the  former  to  take  part  in  the  Peace  of  Paris  in  1814. 

Von  Closen  returned  to  Europe,  became  an  officer  of  the  house- 
hold of  Marie  Antoinette,  and  died  in  1830,  at  Zweibrücken. 
Custine  rose  to  high  command  in  the  French  Revolution  only  to 
end  his  days  on  the  guillotine  ; his  biography  has  been  printed 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


17 


both  in  French  and  German.  Ratterman  thinks  at  least  one-third 
of  Rochambeau’s  army  at  Yorktown  consisted  of  Germans,  Alsa- 
tians, Lothringers  and  Swiss.  Gen.  Weedon,  he  says,  was  born  in 
Hanover,  served  in  the  Austrian  War,  1742-81,  and  for  his  services 
at  Dettingen  was  promoted  first  to  ensign  and  next  to  lieutenant, 
coming  in  that  rank  to  America  in  the  Royal  American  Regiment 
under  Bouquet.  He  became  a captain  in  the  Third  Virginia,  and 
colonel  of  the  First  Virginia,  and  later  a brigadier-general  of  the 
Continental  army.  The  Germans  under  Ewald  were  driven  back 
by  the  Germans  under  Armand  at  Gloucester,  Va.,  and  in  the  siege 
of  Yorktown,  Deux-Ponts  led  his  Germans  in  the  attack  on  a 
redoubt  defended  by  Hessians,  and  at  several  points  commands 
were  given  on  both  sides  in  German.  Washington  and  the  King 
of  France  both  commended  the  valor  of  the  Zweibriicken  regiment. 
German  soldiers  held  the  trenches  on  both  sides  when  the  surrender 
was  finally  made.  German  regiments  under  the  French  and  Amer- 
ican flags  received  the  surrender  of  German  regiments — Anspach, 
Hessian,  serving  under  the  British  flag — and  the  officers  and  men 
joined  in  warm  greetings  ; the  Anspachers  offered  to  serve  with 
their  countrymen  in  Lauzun’s  Legion,  an  offer  declined  as  a viola- 
tion of  the  terms  of  capitulation.  The  German  novelist  Sealsfield, 
in  his  story  Morton , Stuttgart,  1844,  describes  Steuben’s  share  in 
this  crowning  victory.  Mr.  J.  F.  Sachse  has  drawn  from  his  large 
store  of  material  a letter  written  by  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  on 
February  8,  1783,  to  Gen.  Riedesel,  in  view  of  the  return  of  his 
force  to  Germany,  in  which  he  says  that  as  not  half  of  his  officers 
and  subordinates  can  remain  in  active  service  at  home,  while  many 
of  them  must  be  reduced  in  rank  and  more  discharged  altogether, 
all  who  can  had  better  remain  in  America,  as  he  would  not  burthen 
his  people  and  his  war  budget  with  pensions  for  young  and  able- 
bodied  men  ; he  therefore  authorizes  and  recommends  the  discharge 
of  officers,  especially  those  of  the  staff,  with  six  months’  pay  out  of 
the  regimental  funds;  non-commissioned  officers,  too,  should  be 
encouraged  to  take  their  discharge  and  stay  in  America,  so  that 
companies  may  be  reduced  to  fifty  in  the  infantry  and  thirty- six  in 
the  dragoons,  and  these  must  all  be  natives  of  Brunswick  ; all  men 
under  punishment  or  charged  with  offenses  or  physically  unfitted 
lfiust  be  left  behind.  Chaplains,  paymasters,  surgeons,  etc.,  who 
can  make  their  living  in  America,  were  recommended  to  stay  here. 
In  this  way,  and  with  those  who  died  in  the  service  or  deserted, 


18 


ROSEN  GARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


the  force  returning  to  Brunswick  was  greatly  reduced.  This  letter 
is  printed  in  the  Bi'unswick  Magazine  of  June  4,  1825  ; the  same 
and  earlier  numbers  contain  extracts  from  Papet’s  diary,  which  was 
then  in  possession  of  his  son-in-law,  Captain  Heusler,  in  Brunswick. 
It  was  not  until  April  29,  1783,  that  peace  was  officially  pronounced 
to  the  troops,  and  they  sailed  from  Quebec  on  August  1st  for  a six 
weeks’  voyage  home. 

Papet  says  that  the  deserters  had  a price  put  on  their  heads,  and 
many  of  them  were  arrested  and  brought  back,  so  that  the  Duke’s 
orders  were  not  very  literally  obeyed.  On  their  return  to  Bruns- 
wick the  division  was  reduced  to  an  infantry  regiment  of  two  bat- 
talions and  a small  dragoon  regiment.  Among  them  were  some 
black  men  enlisted  by  Gen.  Riedesel  as  drummers.  Until  1806 
the  dragoons  served  as  guard  of  the  palace — a sort  of  recognition 
of  their  services.  Riedesel  named  one  daughter  “Canada,”  she 
died  in  Canada;  and  another  “America,”  who  died  in  1856. 
Eelking  adds  to  his  Life  of  Riedesel  a list  of  officers,  and  among 
them  Chaplain  Melsheimer  figures  as  a deserter,  in  1779;  while 
Paymaster  Thomas  remained  in  America  after  the  peace  of  1783, 
and  so  did  Lieut,  v.  Reizenstein,  Lieut,  v.  Kônig,  Ensign  Langer- 
jahn,  Ensign  Kolte,  Lieut.  Bielstein,  Lieut.  Conradi,  Lieut,  v.  Pui- 
seger,  and  Ensign  Specht,  while  some  of  those  reported  “ deserters  ” 
and  “missing”  no  doubt  remained  in  America.  It  is  curious  that 
in  Riedesel’s  Life , with  its  voluminous  correspondence  with  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick,  there  is  no  mention  of  the  letter  recommend- 
ing that  his  officers  and  men  should  be  encouraged  to  remain  in 
America.  It  looks  very  much  as  if  Eelking  thought  it  indiscreet 
to  print  it,  as  likely  to  invite  hostile  criticism,  a caution  that  does 
not  seem  to  have  deterred  the  editor  of  the  Brunswick  Magazine  in 
1825,  a time  when  the  censor  kept  a sharp  eye  on  anything  that 
might  lessen  the  respect  for  the  Landesvater.  In  its  way  it  fully 
justifies  Franklin’s  clever  skit  at  the  Elector  of  Hesse  in  the  ficti- 
tious letter  to  his  commander  in  America.  There  must  still  remain 
in  Marburg  and  Cassel  and  Berlin  and  Brunswick,  and  in  the  pri- 
vate families  of  Germany,  much  interesting  and  valuable  material 
throwing  light  on  the  Germans  who  served  under  the  British  flag  in 
the  War  of  American  Independence.  Is  it  not  well  worth  while  to 
get  a complete  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  papers  in  the  Marbufg 
Archives?  The  expense  would  not  be  great,  and  that  once  secured, 
it  would  not  be  difficult  to  have  similar  catalogues  made  for  other 


ROSEN  GARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


19 


public  collections.  In  the  meantime  efforts  could  be  made  to  print 
such  items  of  these  catalogues  as  are  new,  and  to  enlist  the  help  of 
private  owners  of  papers  of  the  kind  in  securing  copies  to  use  in 
printing  in  part  or  in  whole  for  historical  students. 

There  is  no  better  example  of  the  interest  in  such  material  than 
the  letters  of  Mme.  Riedesel.  Printed  in  Berlin  in  1800,  and  again 
in  1801,  they  first  became  known  to  English  readers  through  por- 
tions of  them  printed  by  Gen.  Wilkinson  in  his  Me7noirs)  and  re- 
printed in  Silliman’s  Tour  in  Canada.  In  Germany  they  were 
reprinted  in  1827,  and  again  in  1881. 

The  original  edition  was  intended  only  for  the  family,  and  Gen. 
Riedesel  himself  died  in  1800,  before  it  appeared.  His  widow 
survived  until  180S.  Her  daughters  “ Canada  ” and  “ America  ” 
perpetuate  in  their  names  their  place  of  birth.  The  only  son  died 
in  1854,  and  with  a grandson  the  last  of  the  family  ended.  Amer- 
ican readers  will  always  find  interest  in  Mme.  Riedesel’s  simple 
narrative  of  her  life  here.  Mme.  Riedesel’s  Letters  were  first 
issued  in  1799  in  a privately  printed  edition  for  the  family  and 
their  friends,  and  regularly  published  in  1800  ; the  latest  German 
edition  is  that  published  in  Tübingen  in  1881,  in  which  the  letters 
of  Riedesel,  together  with  brief  biographies  of  husband  and  wife, 
and  an  account  of  their  children  are  given.  It  is  stated  in  the 
Preface  that  of  the  4300  Brunswick  soldiers  led  by  Riedesel  from 
Germany  to  America  only  2600  returned  home  with  him.  Of  the 
1700  lost  to  their  native  country  many  were  of  course  a gain  for 
America.  Riedesel  died  on  January  5,  1800,  after  a harsh  expe- 
rience in  the  Napoleonic  wars.  His  wife  died  on  March  29,  1808; 
their  only  son  died  in  1854,  and  the  daughter  “ Canada  ” died  in 
childhood;  the  daughter  “America”  married  and  left  children. 

General  Stryker  in  the  Appendix  to  his  History  of  the  Battle  of 
Trenton  prints  (on  pp.  396,  etc.)  the  pretended  letter  from  the 
Landgraf  of  Hesse,  in  which  there  is  mention  of  the  losses  at 
Trenton,  and  at  p.  401  Gen.  Heister’s  report  of  that  battle,  and  on 
p 403  the  real  letter  written  by  the  Prince  of  Hesse  to  Knyphausen, 
dated  Cassel,  16th  June,  1777 , in  which  he  speaks  of  the  painful 
shock  of  the  news,  and  directs  a court  of  inquiry  to  investigate 
and  a court-martial  to  try  those  responsible,  and  another  of  April 
23,  1779,  insisting  on  a detailed  explanation  of  the  captains  and 
others  as  to  the  finding  of  the  original  court  ; these  proceedings 
continued  and  a final  verdict  was  arrived  at  in  New  York  in  Jan- 


20 


ROSENGARTEN— AMERICAN  HISTORY . 


uary,  1782,  accompanied  by  a petition  for  mercy  for  those  incul- 
pated but  surviving.  Rail  and  Dechow  had  paid  the  penalty  with 
their  lives.  This  was  signed  (among  others)  by  Schlieffen  in  April, 
1782,  and  thus  that  incident  was  closed  by  the  Elector’s  pardon  to 
the  survivors  from  the  penalty  imposed  by  the  court-martial.  The 
actual  correspondence  consisted  of  Gen.  v.  Heister’s  report,  dated 
New  York,  January  5,  1777,  answered  by  the  Elector  on  April  7, 
regretting  that  Rail  should  have  been  entrusted  with  a post  to  which 
he  was  not  entitled  by  seniority  or  service.  That  Kapp  is  mistaken 
in  crediting  the  pretended  letter  to  Mirabeau  is  best  shown  by 
comparing  his  wordy  Avis  aux  Hessois  with  the  short,  sharp,  pun- 
gent letter  that  bears  internal  evidence  of  Franklin’s  master  hand. 
Reprinted  by  Ford  and  Stryker  and  Bigelow  and  Tyler,  it  is  easily  ac- 
cessible, while  the  Avis  aux  Hessois  of  Mirabeau  is  much  less  known, 
and  a reprint  of  it  may  be  of  interest  as  one  of  the  forgotten 
pamphlets  of  the  man  who  later  on  played  such  a leading  part  in  the 
French  Revolution,  yet  failed  to  do  for  his  country  a tithe  of  the 
good  that  Franklin  did  for  America.  Still,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  Mirabeau  was  one  of  the  earliest  French  advocates  of  Ameri- 
can independence,  and  that  his  Avis  aux  Hessois  was  a warning 
note,  the  opening  of  a war  of  words,  of  a long-drawn-out  battle  of 
pamphlets,  in  which  the  American  cause  was  fought  for  by  French 
allies  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other  by  Germans  in  the  pay  of 
English  and  Hessian  authorities.  Undoubtedly  JVIirabeau’s  influ- 
ence led  Beaumarchais  to  his  best  efforts  to  supply  men  and  provi- 
sions and  munitions  of  war  for  the  American  cause,  culminating, 
largely,  no  doubt,  through  Franklin’s  efforts,  in  the  alliance  which 
played  so  great  a part  in  the  final  result. 

Of  even  greater  value,  however,  is  Schiller’s  eloquent  protest  in 
his  Kabale  und  Liebe  against  the  sale  of  German  soldiers  to  Great 
Britain  to  be  used  against  America.  Frederick  the  Great  denounced 
his  cousin  of  Hesse  for  selling  his  subjects  to  the  English  as  one 
sells  cattle  to  be  dragged  to  the  shambles.  Napoleon  made  it  one 
of  his  reasons  for  overthrowing  the  house  of  Hesse  Cassel  and 
making  the  country  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  Westphalia,  over 
which  his  brother  reigned.  Lowell  praises  Mirabeau’s  pamphlet  as 
an  eloquent  protest  against  the  rapacity  of  the  German  princes 
who  sold  their  subjects  to  Great  Britain,  and  a splendid  tribute  to 
the  patriotism  of  the  Americans.  Fortunately  the  large  number  of 
Germans  who  served  in  the  American  army  on  the  patriot  side, 


R03ENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


21 


from  Steuben  and  De  Kalb  down  to  the  humblest  soldiers,  greatly- 
helped  to  secure  American  independence.  Although  Franklin’s 
letter  is  printed  in  both  Ford  and  Bigelow’s  lives  and  books  of 
Franklin,  it  may  not  be  without  interest  to  reproduce  the  original 
French  and  the  pamphlet  by  Mirabeau,  Avis  aux  Hessois,  the  first 
of  a long  series  of  pamphlets,  notably  those  by  Schlieffen  on  the 
German  side  and  by  Raynal  on  the  American  side,  for  in  their  day 
these  were  most  effective  weapons  in  that  war  of  pamphlets  and 
books  which  greatly  strengthened  the  American  cause  abroad. 
These  copies  I owe  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Wilberforce  Eames,  of 
the  Lenox  Branch  of  the  New  York  Public  Library  ; the  originals 
are  part  of  the  wealth  of  original  papers  and  pamphlets  and  books 
collected  by  Mr.  Bancroft  as  material  for  his  history  and  now 
owned  by  the  Lenox  Library.  Their  free  use  for  students  of  Amer- 
ican history  is  one  of  the  advantages  of  this  present  generation. 


APPENDIX. 

I. 

Lettre  du  Landgrave  de  Hesse,  au  Commandant  de  ses 
Troupes  en  Amérique. 

Monsieur  le  Baron  de  Hogendorf  je  ne  puis  assés  vous  témoigner 
combien  la  Relation  que  vous  mavéz  Envoyé  m’a  comble  de  joye — l’a 
conduite  de  mes  hessois  qui  sont  fait  Immoles  si  heroiquement 
pour  une  cause  qui  nous  est  si  Etrangère,  confirme  toute  l’opinion 
que  javois  de  leurs  bravoure,  & Justifie  l’Espoir  que  javois  fondée 
sur  leur  attachement  à mes  Interês — mais  je  ne  puis  pardonner  aux 
nouvellistes  Anglois  d’avoir  diminué  si  fort,  le  nombre  de  nos  morts — 
pourquoy  n’avoir,  pas  à vouée  franchement,  qu’aulieu  de  neuf  cent  nous 
en  avons  perdu  1700!  En  veritié  je  ne  trouverois  Guère  mon  Compte 
a ce  calcule,  & je  ne  puis  l’attribuer  qu-a  un  motif  très  Interresse  de 
leurs  part — ces  Messieurs  Croyent-ils  donc,  que  trentes  Guinnés  de  plus, 
ou  de  mois  me  sont  Indifferents  ! & cela,  après  un  voiage  aussi 
coûteux,  que  celuy  que  je  viens  de  faire,  & qui,  m’a  fait  contracter 
tant  de  nouvelles  dettes  ....  non,  mon  cher,  que  votre  Zèle  pour  mon 
service,  & vos  désirs,  pour  contribuer  a mes  plaisirs  Redoublent  defforts 
■en  secondant  par  tous  les  moiens  possibles,  toutes  les  Occasion  qui 
pourois  se  presenter  pour  animer,  de  plus  en  plus  mes  fidèles  sujets  a 
se  sacrifier  Jusqu'au  dernier  meme.  Pour  Repondre  à des  vués  aussi 
légitime,  que  necessaries. 


22 


ROSEN  GARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


Témoignés  bien  de  m’apart  au  Colonnel  M combien  je  suis 

mécontent  de  la  conduite  qu’il  a tenu  jusqu-ici, — quoy  ? Le  seul  de  tous 
nos  corps  qui  n’a  perdue  qu’un  seul  homme  jusqu’à  présent  — c’est,  ce 

couvrir  de  honte,  & Redoubler  mes  peines  ; — la  Signora  F — que 

je  viens,  d’ Engager  en  Italie  va  me  coûter  au  de  la  de  Cinq  cents 
Guinées  par  an,  & puis  ces  Anglois,  voudroient  encore  mechicaner  sur 
les  blessés,  & les  estro  piés — mais  non  ils  me  les  payeront  selon  le 
même  Tarif  fixé  pour  les  morts — si  non,  jaime  mieux,  quils  Imitent 
l’Exemple  de  ceux  qui  se  sont  laissés  prendre  à Trenton — en  effets — à 
quoy  meserviroient  ses  misérables  ! ici  ? Ils  ne  sont  plus  a bon  à Rien  ; 
d’ailleurs,  ces  maudits  Rebelles  qui,  tirent  toujours  si  bas,  les  auront 
saris  doubte  Rendus  Impuissants,  mais  quant  à céla,  les  Jésuites  que 
j’ai  envie  d’appéller  dans  mes  états,  s’en  acquitteront  mille,  & mille  fois 
mieux,  & Réparéront  bientôt,  toute  la  de  population,  qui  ne  s’y 
manifeste  déjà  que  trop,  c’est  un  Expedient  que  m’a  donné  a Rome,  le 

Cardinal  T qui  m’a  promis  de  me  ménager  cette  affaire  avec 

toute  la  dexteritée  Imaginable, — Vous  ne  sauriez  croire  (matil  dit;) 
combien  la  vue  de  tant  de  bellés  Guinées  Ranime  la  vigueur.  Or  quoy 
qu’il  en  arrive  jouissons  du  présent  & ne  nous  mettons  pas  en  peine  du 
Reste;  sur  ce,  je  prie  Dieu,  qu’il  vous  tienne  Monsieur  le  Baron  de 
Hogendorf,  en  sa  sainte,  & bonne  Garde,  à Cassel,  1777. 


II. 

Avis  aux  Hessois  et  Autres  Peuples  de  l’Allemagne 
Vendus  par  Leurs  Princes  à l’Angleterre. 

À Cleves.  Chez  Bertol.  1777. 

Quis  furor  is  te  novus  ? quo  nunc , quo  tenditis  ? — 

Heu  ! miseri  cives  ! non  ho  stem,  inimicaque  castra  ; 

....  Vestras  spes  uritis. — Virg. 

Intrépides  Allemands  ! quelle  flétrissure  laissez  vous  imprimer  sur  vos 
fronts  généreux  ! quoi  ! c’est  à la  fin  du  dix-huitième  siècle,  que  les 
peuples  du  centre  de  l’Europe  sont  les  satellites  mercenaries  d’un  odieux 
Despotisme  ! quoi  ! ce  sont  ces  valeureux  Allemands,  qui  défendirent 
avec  tant  d’acharnement  leur  liberté  contre  les  vainquueurs  du  monde, 
& bravèrent  les  armées  Romaines,  qui,  sembables  aux  vils  Africains, 
sont  vendus  & courent  verser  leur  sang  dans  la  cause  des  tyrans  ! ils 
souffrent  qu’on  fasse  chez  eux  le  Commerce  des  Hommes  ! qu’on 
dépeuple  leurs  villes,  qu’on  épuise  leurs  campagnes,  pour  aider 
d’insolens  dominateurs  à ravager  un  autre  hémisphère  ! . . . . Par- 
tageres  vous,  longtems  encore,  le  stupide  aveuglement  de  vos  maîtres 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


23 


....  vous,  respectables  soldats  ! fidelles  & redoutables  soutiens 
de  leur  pouvoir  ! de  ce  pouvoir  qui  ne  leur  fut  confié  que  pour 
protéger  ' leurs  sujets  ! . . . . vous  êtes  vendus  ! . . . . Eh  ! pour 
quel  usage  ! justes  dieux  ! . . . . Amoncelés  comme  des  troupeaux 
dans  des  navires  étrangers,  vous  parcourez  les  mers  : vous  volez  à 
travers  les  écueils  & les  tempêtes,  pour  attaquer  des  peuples  qui  ne 
vous  ont  fait  aucun  mal  ; qui  défendent  la  plus  juste  causes,  qui  vous 
donnent  le  plus  noble  des  exemples.  Eh  ! que  ne  les  imitez  vous,  ces 
peuples  courageux,  au  lieu  de  vous  efforcer  de  les  détruire  ! ils  brisent 
leurs  fers  : ils  combattent  pour  maintenir  leurs  droits  naturels,  & 
garantir  leur  liberté  : ils  vous  tendent  les  bras  : ils  sont  vos  frères  : ils 
sont  doublement  : la  nature  les  fit  tels,  & des  liens  sociaux  ont  confirmé 
ces  titres  sacrés  : plus  de  la  moitié  de  ces  peuple  est  composée  de  vos 
compatriotes,  de  vos  amis,  de  vos  parens.  Ils  ont  fui  la  tyrannie  aux 
extrémités  du  monde  ; & la  tyrannie  les  y a poursuivis  : des  oppresseurs, 
également  avides  & ingrats,  leur  ont  forgé  des  fers  ; & les  respectables 

Américains  ont  aiguisé  ces  fers,  pour  repousser  leurs  oppresseurs 

Le  nouveau  monde  va  donc  vous  compter  au  nombre  des  monstres, 
affamés  d’or  & de  sang,  qui  l’ont  ravagé  ! Allemands,  dont  la  loyauté 
fut  toujours  le  caractère  distinctif,  ne  frémissez  vous  pas  d’un  tel 
reproche?  A ces  motifs,  faits  pour  toucher  des  hommes,  faut-il  joindre 
ceux  d’un  intérêt  également  pressant  pour  des  esclaves  & des  citoyens 
libres  ? 

Savez  vous  quelle  nation  vous  allez  attaquer  ? Savez  vous  ce  que 
peut  le  fanatisme  de  la  liberté  ? C’est  le  seul  qui  ne  soit  pas  o’dieux  : 

c’est  le  seul  respectable  ; mais  c’est  aussi  le  plus  puissant  de  tous 

Vous  ne  le  savez  pas,  ô peuples  aveugles  ! qui  vous  croyez  libres,  en 
rampant  sous  le  plus  odieux  des  Dèspotismes  : celui  qui  force  au  crime  ! 
Vous  ne  le'savez  pas,  vous  que  le  caprice  ou  la  cupidité  d’un  Dèspote 
peuvent  armer  contre  des  hommes,  qui  méritent  de  l’humanité  entière, 
puis  qu’ils  défendent  sa  cause,  & lui  préparent  un  asile  ! ....  ô 
guerriers  mercenaires  ! ô satellites  des  tyrans  ! ô Européens  énervés  ! 
vous  allez  combattre  des  hommes,  plus  forts,  plus  industrieux,  plus 
courageux,  plus  actifs,  que  vous  ne  pouvez  l’être  : un  grand  intérêt  les 
anime  : un  vil  lucre  vous  conduit  : ils  défendent  leur  propriété,  & com- 
battent pour  leurs  foyers  : vous  quittez  les  vôtres,  & ne  combattez  pas 
pour  vous  : c’est  au  sein  de  leur  pais,  c’est  dans  leur  climat  natal,  c’est 
aidé  de  toutes  les  resources  domestiques  qu’ils  font  la  guerre  contre  des 
bandes,  que  l’océan  a vomies,  après  avoir  préparé  leur  défaite.  Les 
motifs  les  plus  puissans  & les  plus  saints  excitent  leur  valeur,  & appellent 
la  victoire  sur  leurs  pas.  Des  chefs,  qui  vous  méprisent,  en  se  servant 
de  vous,  opposeront  de  vaines  harangues  à l’éloquence  irrésistible  de  la 
liberté,  du  besoin,  de  la  nécessité.  Enfin,  & pour  tout  dire  en  un  mot,  la 
cause  des  Américains  est  juste  : le  ciel  & la  terre  réprouvent  celle  que 
vous  ne  rougissez  pas  de  soutenir  : . . . . 


24 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


O Allemands  ! qui  donc  a soufflé,  parmi  vous,  cette  soif  de  com- 
battre, cette  frénésie  barbare,  cet  odieux  dévouement  à la  tyrannie  ? 

Non  : je  ne  vous  comparerai  pas  à ces  fanatiques  Espagnols,  qui 
détruisoient  pour  détruire,  qui  se  bagnoient  dans  le  sang,  quand  la 
nature  épuisée  forçoit  leur  insatiable  cupidité  à faire  place  à une  passion 
plus  atroce.  Des  sentimens  plus  nobles,  des  erreurs  plus  excusables 
vous  égarent.  Cette  fidélité  pour  vos  chefs,  qui  distingua  les  Germains 
vos  ancêtres,  cette  habitude  d’obéir,  sans  calculer  qu’il  est  des  devoirs 
plus  sacrés  que  l’obéissance,  & antérieurs  à tous  les  sermens,  cette 
•crédulité  qui  fait  suivre  l’impulsion  d’un  petit  nombre  d’insensés  ou 
d'ambitieux  ; voilà  vos  torts  ; mais  ils  seront  des  crimes,  si  vous  ne  vous 
arrêtez  au  bord  d’abîme  ....  déjà  ceux  de  vos  compatriotes,  qui  vous 
ont  précédés,  reconnoisent  leur  aveuglement  ; ils  désertent  ; & les  bien- 
faits de  ces  peuples,  qu’ils  égorgeoient  n’aguère,  & qui  les  traitent  en 
•frères,  aujourd’hui  qu’ils  ne  leur  voient  plus  en  main  le  glaive  des 
bourreaux,  aggravent  leur  remords,  & doublent  leur  repentir. 

Profitez  de  leur  exemple,  ô Soldats  ! pensez  à votre  honneur  : pensez 
à vos  droits  : . . . . n’en  avez  vous  donc  pas  comme  vos  chefs  ? . . . . 
Oui  : sans  doubte  : on  ne  le  dit  point  assez  : les  hommes  passent  avant 
les  Princes,  qui  pour  le  plupart,  ne  sont  pas  dignes  d’un  tel  nom  : 
laissez  à d’infâmes  courtisans,  à d’impies  blasphémateurs,  le  soin  de 
vanter  la  prérogative  royale  : & ses  droits  illimités  : mais  n’oubliez  point 
que  TOUS  ne  furent  pas  faits  pour  UN  : qu’il  est  un  autorité  superiéure 
à toutes  les  autorités  : que  celui  qui  commande  un  crime,  ne  doit 
point  être  obéi  : & qu’ainsi  votre  conscience  est  le  premier  de  vos 
chefs 

Interrogez  la  cette  conscience  : elle  vous  dira,  que  votre  sang  ne  doit 
couler  que  pour  votre  patrie  : qu’il  est  atroce  de  recevoir  de  l’argent 
pour  aller  égorger,  à plusieurs  milliers  de  lieues  des  hommes,  qui  n’ont 
•d’autres  relations  avec  vous  que  celles,  qui  doivent  leur  concilier  votre 
bienveillance. 

Elle  prétend  faire  une  guerre  légitime,  cette  Métrople,  qui  s’épuise 
pour  ruiner  ses  enfans  ! elle  réclame  ses  droits.  & ne  veut  les  discuter 
qu’avec  la  foudre  des  combats  ! . . . . mais  fussent-ils  réels,  ces  droits, 
les  avez  vous  examinés  ? Est-ce  à vous  à juger  ce  procès  ? Est-ce  à 
vous  à prononcer  l’arrêt?  Est-ce  à vous  à l’exécuter?  ....  Eh! 
qu’importent  après  tout  ces  vains  titres  si  problématiques  & si 
•contestés  ? L’homme,  dans  tous  les  païs  du  monde,  a le  droit  d’être 
hereux.  Voilà  la  premiere  des  loix  : voilà  le  premier  des  titres  : 
des  colonies  ne  vont  point  fertiliser  des  terres  nouvelles,  augmenter 
la  gloire  & la  puissance  de  la  mère-patrie,  pour  en  être  opprimées 
....  le  sont-elles?  Elles  ont  le  droit  de  secouer  le  joug:  parce  que 
le  JOUG  n’est  pas  fait  pour  l’homme. 

► Mais,  qui  vous  a dit  que  les  Anglois  avoient  signé  l’arrêt  de  proscrip- 
tion lancé  contre  les  Américains  ? . . . . Braves  Allemands  ! on  vous  a 


ROSENGARTEN— AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


25 


trompé.  N’avilissez  pas  par  un  tel  soupçon  une  nation  qui  a produit  de 
grands  hommes  & de  belles  loix,  qui  nourrit  longtems  dans  son  sein  le 
feu  sacré  de  la  liberté,  & mérite,  à ces  titres,  du  respect  & des  égards 
....  Hélas  ! dans  les  isles  Britanniques,  comme  dans  le  reste  de 
l’univers,  un  petit  nombre  d’ambitieux  agite  le  peuple  & produit  les 
calamités  publiquës.  Le  moment  de  crise  est  arrivé.  l’Angleterre  n’est 
divisée,  malheureuse,  en  guerre  contre  ses  frères,  que  parce  que  le 
Dèspotisme  lutte  depuis  quelques  années  avec  avantage  contre  la  liberté. 
Ne  croyez  donc  pas  défendre  la  cause  des  Anglois  : vous  combattez  pour 
l’accroissement  de  l’autorité  de  quelques  ministres  qu’ils  abhorrent  & 
méprisent. 

Les  voulez  vous  connoître,  les  véritables  motifs  qui  vous  mettent  les 
armes  à la  main  ? 

Un  vain  luxe,  des  dépenses  méprisables  ont  ruiné  les  finances  des 
Princes  qui  vous  gouvernent  ; leurs  spoliations  ont  tari  leurs  resources  ; 
ils  ont  trop  souvent  trompé  la  confiance  de  leurs  voisins,  pour  y 
recourir  encore.  Il  faudrait  donc  renoncer  à ce  faste  excessif,  à ces 
fantaisies  sans  cesse  renaissantes,  qui  sont  leur  occupation  la  plus 
importante  ; ils  ne  peuvent  s’y  résoudre  ; ils  ne  le  feront  pas  ; 
l’Angleterre  épuisée  d’hommes  & d’argent,  acheté  à grands  frais  de 
l’argent  & des  hommes  Vos  Princes  saisissent  avidement  cette  resource 
momentanée  & ruineuse  : ils  lèvent  des  Soldats  : ils  les  vendent  : ils  les 
livrent  : voilà  l’emploi  de  vos  bras  : voilà  à quoi  vous  étiez  destinés, 
Votre  sang  sera  le  prix  de  la  corruption,  & le  jouet  de  l’ambition.  Cette 
argent,  qu’on  vient  d’acquérir,  en  commerçant  de  vos  vies,  paiera  des 
debtes  honteuses,  ou  aidera  à en  contracter  de  nouvelles.  Un  avide 
usurier,  une  méprisable  Courtisane,  un  vil  histrion,  vont  recevoir  ces 
guinées  données  en  échange  de  votre  existence. 

O dissipateurs  aveugles  ! qui  vous  jouez  de  la  vie  des  hommes,  & 
prodiguez  les  fruits  de  leurs  travaux,  de  leurs  sueurs,  de  leurs  substance, 
un  repentir  tardif,  des  remords  déchirans  seront  vos  bourreaux,  mais  ne 
soulageront  pas  ces  peuples  que  vous  foulez  ; vous  regretterez  vos 
laboureurs  & leurs  moissons,  vos  Soldats,  vos  sujets  ; vous  pleurerez 
sur  les  malheurs,  dont  vous  mêmes  aurez  été  les  artisans,  & qui  vous 
envelopperont  avec  tout  votre  peuple.  Un  voisin  formidable  sourit  de 
votre  aveuglement,  & s’apprête  à en  profiter;  il  forge  déjà  les  fers, 
dont-il  médite  de  vous  charger:  vous  gémirez  sous  le  poids  de  vos 
chaînes,  fussent-elles  d’or;  & votre  conscience,  alors  plus  juste  que 
votre  cœur  ne  fut  sensible,  sera  la  furie  vengeresse  des  maux  que  vous 
aurez  faits. 

Et  vous  peuples  trahis,  vexés,  vendus,  rougissez  de  votre  erreur  : que 
vos  yeux  se  dessillent  : quittez  cette  terre  souillée  du  dèspotisme  : 
traversez  les  mers  : courez  en  Amérique  ; mais  embrassez  y vos  frères  ; 
défendez  ces  peuples  généreux,  contre  l’orgueilleuse  rapacité  de  leurs 
persécuteurs  : partagez  leur  bonheur  : doublez  leurs  forces  : aidez-les 


26 


ROSENGARTEN — AMERICAN  HISTORY. 


de  votre  industrie  : appropriez  vous  leurs  richesses  en  les  augmentant  : 
tel  est  le  but  de  la  société:  tel  est  le  devoir  de  l’homme,  que  la  nature 
a fait  pour  aimer  ses  sembables,  & non  pas  pour  les  égorger  : apprenez 
des  Américains  l’art  d’être  libre,  d’être  hereux,  de  tourner  les 
institutions  sociales  au  profit  de  chacun  des  individus  qui  composent 
la  société  : oubliez  dans  le  respectable  asile,  qu’ils  offrent  à l’humanité 
souffrante,  les  délires,  dont  vous  fûtes  les  complices  & les  victimes  : 
connoissez  la  vraie  grandeur  : la  vraie  gloire  : la  vraie  félicité  : que 
les  nations  Européennes  vous  envient,  & bénissent  la  modération 
des  habitans  du  nouveau  monde,  qui  dédaigneront  de  venir  les  punir 
de  leurs  forfaits,  & de  conquérir  les  terres  dépeuplées,  que  foulent 
des  tyrans  à oppresseurs  & qu’arroseent  de  leurs  larmes  des  esclaves, 
opprimés. 


